Thursday, July 24, 2014

Pattison
enables its digital signs to change with the weather by Val
Maloney

Pattison Outdoor Advertising has
announced the addition of its SmartAd advertising engine to the company’s
outdoor digital faces across Canada, allowing clients to update signs in
real-time.

The technology had already been in
place on Pattison’s indoor signage, with the tech being added to the outdoor
digital faces across Canada this summer. Ian Gadsby, VP of digital technology
at Pattison, tells MiC the new tool allows clients to either pre-plan
changes to messaging that will go live based on variables like temperature or a
connected social media feed, or to update the signage in real-time through the
OOH company’s CMS.

He says clients are already using
the technology, with Coca-Cola currently running a campaign that only displays
Minute Maid ads when the weather is hot. Gadsby adds that the tech was first
developed by OneStop Media, which Pattison acquired in 2011.

Costs around using the technology
are slightly higher than standard ads due to production charges, according to a
Pattison representative.

Gadsby says the addition of the
tool to the company’s OOH digital signs means clients can dynamically change ad
messaging across the board now, with indoor and outdoor signage switching at
the same time. In total the company operates 2,707 digital indoor and outdoor
signs across Canada.